Therefore, it was necessary to resolve as soon as possible the issue of replacing the damaged wardrobe with something minimally acceptable, preferably new, never used.

Chakwas knew that not all Normandians were calm and friendly about the fact that they now had to endure the presence of two other aliens on board the Earth ship, in addition to the Turian Nilus Kraik. Although three decades have passed, it used to be when the majority of earthlings lived no more than seventy or eighty years, it was considered a long and even huge period, and now, when the average human life expectancy has reached one hundred and fifty years, including thanks to the achievements of medicine— this period was considered very short. Moreover, not everyone always knew exactly and clearly about their xenophobia and its scale. Most often, its manifestation required a collision with aliens of many races — a simple peaceful meeting or ... or a fight. The inertia of people's thinking and activity did not disappear anywhere. Thinking about it, Karin had no doubt that the permanent inhabitants of the frigate would now have to get used to the presence of aliens on board and Nilus Kraik, as well as Saren Arterius and Benezia T'Sony is only the first non-racial reasonable people who can get a permanent residence permit on the Normandy.

Chakwas doubted that Benezia would receive such a permanent residence permit: Azari was a civilian through. But Saren Arterius is another matter. He's a predator, he's a warrior, he's a Spectre, and he's Nihlus Kraik's mentor. Yes, I had to remind Kraik harshly of who he is on board, but now the recovering and growing Saren Arterius, who directly owes his life and personal integrity to the same Shepard, will take care of him. It is customary for Turians to appreciate and even love such reasonable people — not every organic person got the opportunity to really save a Turian's life.

* * *

Caroline Grenado— a maintenance engineer, threw up her hands when the text of a letter from Karin appeared on the desktop instrument screen. The gesture did not go unnoticed and a ring immediately formed around the desktop — the women, of course, knew how emotional Caroline could be, but they were clearly interested in such a reaction.

Several pairs of eyes read the short message. Karolina sent the text of the letter and its appendices to her friends' instruments, they opened the screens and, sitting down on chairs and bunks, began to read attentively. The letters and additions sent by Chakvas did not go to the instrumentron archives: the ladies began to study their contents.

"We need to help them," said Monica Hegulesko, an electronic equipment technician. "I remember that the quartermaster had something among his supplies...."

"You're right." Sergeant Amina Vaaberi, the only female soldier from the police contingent, answered, looking up from the screen. "we dealt with Turians, helped them adjust their shape to our earthly human standards." The woman's fingers ran over the keyboard of the omny-tool. I still have the materials. I am sending copies to all of you. Let's think."

"We must not only think, we must act." Mandira Rahman, the ship's propulsion systems operator, said thoughtfully. "I understand that we all, including subconsciously, clung to the opportunity to help a Turian dress up. He's a man, and for us women, whatever you say, he's attractive, but we can't forget about Asari either."

"Turians live about as long as we humans do," Elena M'lavi countered "therefore, it is easy for us, earthlings, to communicate with them, despite the acute and, what is there to hide, especially the bitter memory of the conflict of the First Contact. But with an Asari, and even a matriarch... a member of the Matriarchy. I am very cautious about politicians, but anyway, Benezia is a politician. So she can be very insincere. I don't like politicians, and especially insincere ones! Therefore, it is likely that I will focus on helping the Turian. And the Azari... No, I still can't overcome my ingrained negative attitude towards aliens like her.

"Then I'll take it upon myself to provide Asari with all the necessary wardrobe." Amina Vaaberi, got up from her chair. "You girls are too cruel. If I understood correctly, Benezia fell under the pressure of indoctrination, almost becoming a complete "irretrievable" husk. Such an impact greatly changes a reasonable organic. If it wasn't for Captain Shepard, we would have two husk's belonging to different races on board. And thanks to the dedication of the XO, as far as I could understand from Karin's message, we received quite adequate passengers. If you look into the archives of the ship, you can find out, friends, that Benezia is a mother, she has an only daughter, whom she gave birth to shortly before the moment when pregnancy and childbirth would have become very problematic. And she hasn't talked to her daughter in fifty years, friends. Fifty years! A third of our lives! I have no doubt that now the Asari matriarch will want to restore relations with her daughter on a normative scale. And we have to help her make this reunion happen. She wasn't born a politician, friends. She was born an Asari, capable of generating life!"

"We understand that you have made a decision," Monica turned to her. And I'll say this. While we are with the defeated Reaper, on a completely comfortable and equipped planet inhabited by intelligent organics, we have time to do something useful. Therefore, I suggest that we do not divide our passengers by race and help them both. Through collective efforts. Let's take a look at the situation, see the supplies at the quartermaster of the ship. By the way, girls, now this is a normal man, and not the former "creature", which, in my opinion, is unworthy of being called a man. I think the current supplier will not refuse to help us. I am also sure that the commander of the ship will help."

"Let's get to work, colleagues," Caroline supported her friend.

The forecastle, traditionally considered female on board a small ship, was soon empty — the women and girls, after a brief consultation, went into the hold, into the possession of the quartermaster-policeman. A quarter of an hour later, its inhabitants gathered around the table with the instrumentation again, laying out the bundles they had brought. While Monica was writing Karin's answer, typing it on the keyboard of her wrist instrument, the other ladies began to print out the "appendices" on plastic-paper sheets — Chakwas sent the exact body sizes of the Asari and Turian in separate files, so it was quite possible to do without the fittings.

"This is a challenge, girls," Elena said, bending over a piece of cloth with a heat cutter in her hand. "For me, anyway. I rarely sewed anything without trying it on."

"Don't go on, Lena. Together, we will figure out everything in the best possible way." Monica answered.

* * *

After receiving a response from her friends, Chakwas relaxed with satisfaction, leaning back in her desk chair and resting her head on the headrest. Now the problem with clothes for patients has started to be solved practically.

After looking at the indicators of the Asari and Turian's condition, the ship's doctor made sure that everything was in order — the recovery was being carried out normally. After thinking about it, she got up from her chair, went to Asari's bed, extended her sleep for a few more hours with a slight hypnotic effect, simultaneously conducting a traditional manual examination of the convalescent.

Approaching the bed where the Turian was sleeping, the doctor made sure that he was already sleeping soundly and did not need additional stimulation of sound sleep. Even if he wakes up first in a few hours, there will be no problem — he already knows that Azari is recovering and so far has shown no desire to grab her by the throat again or otherwise encroach on her health and safety. Nevertheless, Shepard thoroughly cleansed their psychosphere: who better than a doctor, an expert in the treatment of aliens was well aware of how important the correctness and accuracy of the primary therapeutic effect on the patient was. And the XO carried out this effect — not on the body, but on the souls of the patients — superprofessionally.

Thinking about how well and fundamentally the current XO of the Normandy had been taught many tricks by the Academy's mentors, Chakwas returned to her desk, settled into her chair, and, standing still, prepared to wait. It was not the first time she had been on duty to remain almost completely motionless. Of course, in an hour we will have to carry out another audit of medicines and equipment, but this is routine daily work.

Yes, a lot has changed on the prototype frigate. More recently, Karin sincerely believed that her craving for a solitary stay in the Medical Bay was a way to overcome the consequences of a confrontation with several members of the crew of the Normandy. She didn't want to use combat hypnosis, and she didn't want to show her abilities, which were available to her as a high-class medic. Therefore, in order to avoid the extreme aggravation of the next situation, I had to return to the medical bay. After all, she was only a doctor on board, not a commander or executive officer.

Anderson understood her, covered for her, and sometimes rebuked the Frigates who wanted to take out their irritation on the medic. Karin could sense how much David disliked everything connected with the absence of the first mate on the ship. It was only after a short stay at the Arcturus, when Captain Shepard stepped on board, that Anderson was able to calm down. Up to this point, David had often had to put the Normans off — not everyone liked life, where there were many more questions than answers to them. And then there's this Naylus with his "lordship"...

After eating an army ration-there was no desire to go to the makeshift frigate canteen, and there was no desire to just leave the Medical Bay-Chakwas once again scanned the patient status indicators, made sure that everything was more or less stable and there were no signs of deterioration, then she got up, went first to Azari's bed, then— She went to the Turian's bed, made quick manual checks, calmed down, and returned to her desk.

Leaning her hands on the countertop, Chakwas read from the desktop instrument screen another information message file about what was happening at the site of unexpected and immediately completely classified excavations.

The doctor knew that a convoy of equipment belonging to the archaeologists who had previously discovered the Lighthouse had been sent to the excavation site, she knew that Shepard had also flown there, and now she was reading with interest another, albeit very short, message from the scene.

She realized more and more keenly that Shepard loved her. He loves her like a woman. But at the same time, he did not put pressure on her, did not pursue her, did not seek to satisfy only his eternal male desires. He, who felt Chakvas no less keenly, loves her primarily as an independent, self-valuable person.

It so happens that fate gives the same person the opportunity to simultaneously experience love not for one, but for several women. And it's not always in the best interests of Choice. And in order, among other things, to understand whether this person is solid, whether he is strong in spirit, whether he is able to keep within the necessary limits. And Shepard, as Karin now reasonably believed, was able to keep within bounds. He knew, felt, saw that Chakwas was not indifferent to Anderson, that she gave preference to the commander of the ship and found it normative and usual, and therefore did not interfere in the situation, keeping enough distance between himself and Karin so as not to cause anxiety and inconvenience to either her or David.

Karin couldn't deny that she also made Shepard stand out from other Normandy men. He was unusual. And what she witnessed here in the Medical Bay only confirmed this strangeness with all certainty. With the arrival of John Shepard on board the ship, a lot has changed. Qualitatively, not just quantitatively.

If it weren't for these changes... There would have been a lot more patients in the Infirmary. Severe patients. An easy, unencumbered trip to Eden Prime would have turned into beating up a frigate with a Reaper, and then... Even with all her medical cynicism, Karin could hardly imagine, overcoming fear, horror, indignation, what kind of destruction a guest Reaper from the past could cause to Eden Prime. The Reaper, which almost all the sentients who now inhabited the Galaxy, its explored part, preferred to think of as something distant and therefore not dangerous at all. Yes, Chakwas had heard Normandy talk that Shepard had presented Anderson with evidence that the Reaper was heading to Eden Prime. He goes in disguise, but no one tries to detain him or stop him or destroy him.

Now the Reaper is immobilized, he is quiet and seems to have even submitted to his unenviable fate of being defeated, but for some reason it seems to her, Karin Chakvas, that Shepard will definitely pay attention to him, this ship, in the near future. Now the ship's doctor did not believe, did not want to believe that the frigate would have to just fly away from the planet, leaving this terrible powerful ship on its surface. A superdreadnought according to most of the classifications that exist among intelligent organics.

* * *

There was a lot of work going on in the women's quarters. Taking advantage of the fact that the number of watches on the ship was reduced to a minimum when parked on a developed planet, the women engaged in a pleasant and useful business — sewing numerous wardrobe items for the patients of the Medical Bay.

Behind the tightly closed door of the forecastle, an endless conversation continued about what had happened over the past few hours. The underwear for the Asari and Turian had already been sewn, and now lightweight outerwear was being created, including overalls.

"Who will go to Karin?" Carolyn asked, pressing the pedal of the sewing machine and pushing the fabric under the needle holder with her fingers. "She will not tolerate crowds in her domain, and our crowd of patients can and most likely will strain quite really and strongly."

"I'll go," Elena said.

"And me," Monica said, removing another stitched piece of overalls from under the needle holder. "We would be glad if you, Kara, would come with us."

"Agreed," grinned Grenado. "I think we can do it in an hour. Mandira, send Kareen the information that we will be there soon."

"I did," Rahman replied, packing the laundry into separate bags. "Karin will check it out, of course, but I think they'll both like these things. You'll like them."